Well, a big part of last year’s conference was the many amazing jewelry and metalsmithing exhibitions that were all over town. So, after returning home last spring, I submitted a proposal for a gallery show of my own, one highlighting Steampunk metalwork. The proposal was accepted, and I was awarded one of the Seattle galleries that SNAG had negotiated with for the month of May. Huzzah! Preparations began in earnest and we lined up a killer assortment of artists, many of whom began creating new works specifically for this show. It was shaping up to be a fabulous event. Except…

Just at the end of January, right before the Indulge show, we were informed that our gallery was going out of business. About a month of scrambling and frantic emails and phone calls yielded no other gallery options that would work, and I was left with a hard choice. Were we really about to give up on this show? The alternative was to somehow raise a lot of money to rent an alternative venue. Oh, and by the way: one of the reasons galleries are nice to have is that they have things like insurance, security systems, and staff. Going it alone meant taking on all of those things, too.

Someone suggested I start a campaign on Kickstarter.com – which I’d heard about before, and had seen people use successfully, mostly for Burning Man projects. I started looking at it more closely. People seemed to be raising a LOT of money on here. I started tallying both our known and unknown expenses. (Some might call this a business plan, but that would imply that I have some clue of what I’m doing, which would be overly generous.) I visited empty retail storefronts and spoke with leasing agents. I racked up a stack of insurance quotes.

And then the clincher. I fired off a letter to Captain Robert of the Airship Ophelia. With as much dignity as I could muster (and more than a little snark) I explained my plight, and then begged a boon: would he grant me the use of one of his Aether Shanties? You see, Kickstarter requires its users to post a video documentary; and not that I know anything about videography, but I do know that they come across a lot better with a soundtrack. And by some stroke of luck the old airdog said: Yes. So that sealed the deal. A fundraiser we would have, and Gods willing, we’d still have a show — and we’d do it on our own terms.